Troubleshoot

Deploy Nodes

Once a node has been commissioned (see Commission nodes)
the next logical step is to deploy it. Deploying a node means, effectively,
to install an operating system on it.

The agent that triggers deployment may vary. For instance, if the nodes are
destined to be running complex, inter-related services that may involve scaling
up or down, that is, if they will be regarded as a "cloud" resource, then
Juju is the recommended deploy agent (it will also install &
configure services on the deployed nodes). If you simply want to use MAAS to
install a base operating system and work on the machines manually then you can
deploy a node directly with MAAS.

The node, only if deployed with MAAS, will also be ready to accept connections
via SSH to the 'ubuntu' user account providing an SSH key has been imported to
the user's MAAS account. This is explained in
SSH keys.

Note: Juju has its own way of adding SSH keys to machines under its control.

To deploy, the underlying machine needs to be configured to netboot (this
should already have been done during the commissioning stage). Such a machine
will undergo the following process:

DHCP server is contacted

kernel and initrd are received over TFTP

machine boots

initrd mounts a Squashfs image ephemerally over iSCSI

cloud-init triggers deployment process

curtin installation script is run

Squashfs image (same as above) is placed on disk

Note: The curtin installer uses an image-based method and is now the only installer used by MAAS. The older debian-installer (preseed) method has been removed. Some remnants of preseed may still be found however. See /etc/maas/preseed directory.

ensure any pertinent SSH keys are imported (see
SSH keys) to MAAS so connections can be made to
deployed nodes.

To deploy directly from MAAS simply select any given node and press the
'Deploy' button.

You then have the option of deviating from the default OS, release, and kernel.
When ready, press 'Go'.

See MAAS CLI for how to deploy a node with the CLI. If
doing so, you will first need to acquire the node explicitly, either via the
web UI or the CLI.

While a node is deploying its status will change to Deploying 'OS', where
'OS' is the name of the OS being deployed (e.g. 'Deploying Ubuntu 16.04 LTS').

Once a node has finished deploying its status will change to Deployed 'OS'
(e.g. 'Deployed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS').

Acquire nodes

Acquiring a node (sometimes called "allocating" a node) is simply a means of
reserving the node so that it is no longer available to any other process,
whether that process be MAAS itself (e.g. another MAAS user) or a process such
as Juju that uses MAAS as its source of backing machines.

Before a node is deployed it must therefore always be acquired, resulting in a
status of 'Allocated'. However, when deploying from the web UI this action is
performed automatically (and invisibly).

The action remains useful in terms of reserving a node for later use. To
acquire a node explicitly simply select the node and apply the 'Acquire'
action.